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A portrait of former President Clinton in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington contains a subtle reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal that engulfed the White House in the late '90s, the portrait's painter has revealed. Pennsylvania artist Nelson Shanks told the Philadelphia Daily News in a Sunday article that the painting features a shadow on its left-hand side, and that the shadow was actually cast by a blue dress that was placed on a mannequin. "The reality is [Clinton's] probably the most famous liar of all time. He and his administration did some very good things, of course, but I could never get this Monica thing...

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A portrait of former President Clinton in the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington contains a subtle reference to the Monica Lewinsky scandal that engulfed the White House in the late '90s, the portrait's painter has...

The future of California’s effort to entrust a nonpartisan citizens’ panel with redrawing the state’s congressional districts appeared in serious doubt Monday after arguments in the Supreme Court.
The court’s conservative justices voiced agreement with a...

Senator Barbara A. Mikulski announced her retirement Monday in Baltimore.
Mikulski, speaking at the podium by herself, said she spent considerable time thinking about how she wanted to spend the next two years and ultimately decided she didn't want to...

California may be a blue state, but a Republican-led effort to scale back federal intervention in educational reform is drawing support here.
As the House of Representatives moves to vote on reauthorizing a 50-year-old education reform law, Republicans...

West Virginia's state Senate has approved an abortion ban at 20 weeks' pregnancy, as the state House of Delegates did earlier, and by hefty margins likely to withstand a possible veto.
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, a Democrat, vetoed a similar measure...

A Republican-led effort to revise a federal education law could slash $782 million for disadvantaged students in Los Angeles Unified over the next six years, federal education officials said Tuesday.
Under the proposed House of Representatives bill,...

On Monday, a federal judge in Texas blocked President Obama's latest executive actions on immigration. This is a short-term win for Republicans, who rightly believe the president lacked the authority to act unilaterally. But it does nothing to change...

Mike saw my recent Ask Laz on whether members of Congress have to pay into Social Security (answer: yes, if elected after 1984).
This prompted him to ask: "What kind of health benefits do members of Congress receive?"
Fair question.
...

Thanks to the reality TV series "Top Chef," Tom Colicchio is one of the country's most recognizable chefs and restaurateurs. He's used his notoriety to bring attention to hunger in America, labeling genetically modified food and expanding free...

Rumors swirled for years, prosecution documents piled up, but each time a whiff of impropriety surfaced, Oregon First Lady Cylvia Hayes managed to distance herself.
Her first brush with a state investigation was in 2010, when the Oregon attorney...

To the editor: The new Republican House of Representatives has picked up where the last left off by passing a bill to repeal Obamacare. ("House passes new Obamacare repeal, directing creation of replacement law," Feb. 3)
Unlike past repeal...

President Obama's proposed budget for fiscal 2016 calls for slight increases in federal funding for cultural institutions, including the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. But the proposed increases wouldn't...

Four months after a federal investigation found that some members of the Alaska National Guard were ostracized and abused after reporting sexual assaults, Gov. Bill Walker on Friday named a new leader to "turn the page" on the Guard's...

With the possible exception of a Hollywood celebrity following in the footsteps of Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican candidate has as much chance getting elected to the U.S. Senate from California as a Southern Baptist has to become pope. The only way...

President Obama revived his call Thursday to end federal spending limits linked to a last-resort deficit deal reached nearly four years ago, an appeal that fell squarely in the divide between Republicans in Congress who want to rein in costs and those who...

The controversy over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned address to the U.S. Congress continued to grow Thursday, dragging into the fray Israel’s spy agency, the Mossad.
Speaker John A. Boehner’s invitation to Netanyahu to speak before...

On Thursday, the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark ruling in Roe vs. Wade, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on a bill to ban abortions at 20 weeks. The bill is expected to pass the House and may pass the Senate as well,...

Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, who is weighing a run for the U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by Barbara Boxer in two years, is outlining a policy agenda focused on climate change, education and tax reform and pledging to serve only...

The newly elected member of Congress arrived in the nation's capital after a red-eye flight from LAX in a government-assigned cheap seat next to the bathroom.
Sleep-deprived, Norma J. Torres busied herself during the taxi ride downtown by answering...

Embattled Republican Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of tax evasion, but said he would not resign his seat.
In a Brooklyn courtroom before U.S. District Judge Pamela Chen, Grimm admitted to aiding in the...